Exciting news! I was in the top 10 of the Global Funky Kids Radio for Animated Music Video for my video My Monkey at His Best!
That monkey does it every time! I'm thrilled that I was part of this contest. Thanks to all for helping me by voting so I could get to the top 10. Very much appreciated!
The People's Choice Awards finalists are now announced and all finalists will go to the judges as the next step. The online Awards event will now be on Sunday 24th March 9am AEDT / Sat 23rd March 2pm PT and 5pm ET. Further details are forthcoming.
ABOUT MY MONKEY AT HIS BEST
I was 5 years old, and my brother was 8. My mother took us to a farm outside of Montreal to visit my first cousin, Snooky. She was much older than me, married, but had no children. But truly, she had a ‘child’ – a monkey, named Chico. He was so very mischievous. He’d ride on the pigs’ backs, (to their dismay), squealing loudly! Chico would steal eggs from under the chickens then climbed up on the top of the tall tin roof where the hens were housed. Then he’d throw down the eggs at the chickens! There was much squawking! Then Snooky would call after him and he would jump into my cousin’s arms, and she’d pet him like a baby. I had the time of my life chasing after Chico all around the large farm.
We went home to Toronto and life seemed dull. Then one day my cousin Snooky appeared at our door with Chico in a big parrot cage! Snooky needed to go away for two months, and she said she had to leave Chico with us! I was thrilled! My mother was not. We set Chico in the parrot cage (quite large) in our spacious kitchen. My dog Squeaky tried to sniff him and Chico pulled his snout a few times against the cage bars! Squeaky didn’t go near him again! At first, he was fun, and soon we were the hit of the neighborhood! But Chico didn’t seem to like being in his cage, he started rattling the cage and it would move across the kitchen as he seemed to know how to maneuver the cage all around the kitchen. So, my mother couldn’t take it any longer and opened the door of the cage and let him out.
Well, he went swinging on the chandeliers, climbing on the chairs, swinging on the curtains and climbing up the stairs, went into the bathroom and squeezed out all the toothpaste onto the floor! My brother and I chased him hoping we could put him back in the cage! But first, he ripped up all the newspapers in the living room; Finally, we caught him. The house was sure a mess!
Poor Chico, he missed the farm, missed his ‘mother’, and missed his freedom! He seemed crushed. The word spread in the neighborhood and the next day my mother brought Chico in his cage outside on the porch, thinking he needed some fresh air. All the kids in the neighborhood came running! I became famous at school! My mother’s friend asked if she could have Chico come to her son’s birthday party. My mother was very happy for the opportunity. About 3 hours later, mom’s friend called us; she was frantic! Chico was missing. They had taken him out of the cage, and he went climbing through the trees! (What did they expect?) My mother called the CFRB radio station to announce that our monkey was missing! It was April 1 – April Fool’s Day!
“Sure lady, said the radio broadcaster, we’ve had enough crank calls today!”
My mother pleaded her case and so they made the announcement over the radio that went all over Toronto and farther.
An hour later, Chico had been located! Fellows from the radio station came to get us and drove us to the site where Chico was found. My mother held a banana in her hand so he would come to her, but instead, he jumped into her arms. They scooted us downtown into the radio station and they took pictures, and the story was repeated on CFRB every hour on the hour! The Telegram (newspaper) quickly picked it up, took pictures, and our faces were splattered on the front page of the paper – all smiling; Chico was mounted on top of the microphone eating his banana! As you could imagine, Chico didn’t stay with us too much longer! But to this day I often think about Chico, so I wrote a song about him – My Monkey at His Best!